Penticton life continues to be fun and easy. Winter has come and gone a number of times. We’ve had to shovel out more than once, and we had a spat of cold days (-10 to -15 C overnight), but generally it has been pretty nice weather here in the balmy 
Okanagan Valley.
Maxi the Cat rules the roost and keeps his staff in line. And Ann and I enjoy the warmish weather with the occasional walk 
, swim (Ann), droning (Mike) 
, hot tub soak (Mike’s legs) 
and generally taking it easy.
On Feb. 8th we celebrated our 30th Anniversary. Holy Crow it’s gettin’ serious 😉 . Here’s Ann doing her best Mona Lisa pose at the pub. Hard to tell who’s who 🙂
We also celebrated Little Connor’s 4th birthday from a far:
Our Penticton house is in the city, but kinda on the edge, so is semi-wild. Our neighbour recently spotted a cougar and bear, and a coyote is apparently hanging around the area. After one of the snow falls I followed these canine tracks through our back yard, down our driveway, and up the hill. I’m sure they were a coyote. So lots of interesting wildlife around.
Last month Ann spent two weeks volunteering as a chauffeur to the curling stars at the national women’s curling championships, the Tournament of Hearts. It was held in Penticton this year, and Ann decided to volunteer.
She got assigned to the transport detail, which mostly meant she had to shlep players and officials around the city and between airports. Seems like she had a great time though, and even came out of it financially on top when she was part winner of a 50:50 draw: $350!
As she’s done a few times in the past, Ann also got rather motherly around a few of the younger teams; most particularly the one from New Brunswick. It was all very cute.
Following her stint as a curling driver Ann disappeared into Olympics TV coverage. Even Maxi got seduced into watching.
A few weeks after the curling ended, Donna flew in to spend a few days with us. She’s always a lot of fun.
With her as the instigator we got out to see a few places like Apex Ski Hill, and visited some excellent restaurants. It was a hoot to just hang out with D. Too bad she was only able to stay a few days…
We’ve got a few more weeks of Penticton life before we start our trek east again. In the meantime we’ll be preparing for the sailing season, and I’ll be working on my droning skills.